Page 99 - 2019 September 11th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art

Fig. 3 Famille-rose Ying vessels, other than the blue and white altar present piece, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 27th
porcelain brushpot vessels from the 5th and 6th years of the Qianlong April 2003, lot 177, and at Bonhams Hong Kong,
painted with the Pipa
Pavillion, inscribed by reign, and the present inscription is remarkable 28th November 2017, lot 37.
Tang Ying, Qing Dynasty, since it dates this panel to the very end of Tang’s
Yongzheng period. These landscapes tie in directly with Tang’s
Ashfield Collection. life. The piece appears to have been painted not landscape paintings, for example, a hanging scroll
long before Tang undertook his last official voyage
圖三 清雍正 唐英製粉彩 to Beijing, on the orders of the Qianlong Emperor, depicting an autumn scene in the collection of the
九江琵琶亭山水圖筆筒 Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated by Peter Lam
and shortly before he asked for retirement.
Ashfield 收藏
in ‘Tang Ying [1682-1756]. The Imperial Factory
Porcelains painted in this flamboyant blue-green Superintendent at Jingdezhen’, Transactions of the
style, with highlights in yellow, rose-pink and red, Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 63, 1998-9, p. 75, fig.
are probably the most striking Tang Ying pieces. 9 (fig. 4). Not only the painting style but also the
Similar Tang Ying landscapes can be seen on the handwriting can be traced directly to Tang Ying.
famous vase from the collections of Wong Kai Zu, Inscriptions on Tang Ying porcelains are executed
Charles Russell, Paul and Helen Bernat and now either in the formal clerical script (lishu) or in
Alan Chuang, included in Julian Thompson, The running script (xingshu) like on the present piece,
Alan Chuang Collection of Chinese Porcelain, Hong both styles displaying a very distinctive hand. The
Kong, 2009, cat. no. 101, and sold in our London landscape painting published by Peter Lam is
rooms 25th June 1946, lot 79, in our Hong Kong inscribed in a very similar running script, and he
rooms, 15th November 1988, lot 52, at Christie’s also illustrates (ibid., fig. 10) a calligraphy in clerical
Hong Kong, 29th April 2001, lot 516, and illustrated script, which is accompanied by a colophon in
in Sotheby’s Hong Kong – Twenty Years, 1973-1993, running script that closely echoes the writing style
Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 294 (fig. 2); on a brushpot on the current panel.
included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition Inscribed in a similar xingshu hand are also two
China without Dragons, Sotheby’s London, 2016, grisaille-painted vessels, a dragon-decorated
cat. no. 205 and illustrated on the catalogue’s dust brushpot in the collection of the Art Museum, The
jacket (fig. 3); and on a small eight-sided, handled Chinese University of Hong Kong, illustrated in
cup, which bears the same seals tao and zhu as the Lam, op. cit., p. 69, figs 5 and 6; and a hexagonal

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